Hello everyone,
This is my first post, as I figured it was time I reach out for some help. Everything I've learnt so far has been self taught from watching videos and reading. Through trial-and-error, I'd like to think I have the basics down. However, I've got some techniques that I'm still trying to work through. My biggest problem is that I can't seem to get a nice hard finish when applying paint. I just can't figure it out.
I've just sprayed some Tamiya paint (black), thinned with X- along with a drop of (vallejo), on several parts. All parts were primed with Alclad white primer. It's been about 3 hours dry-time, yet the sprayed paint chips quite easily. it feels very "soft" when I scratch, or tap with my finger nail. It just doesn't have that nice hard feeling I'm always seeing when I see other peoples’ work.
I'm getting frustrated because the paint just doesn't last. Masking is a nightmare as it just pulls the paint off - no matter how long I leave the piece(s) to dry. I'm in a very dry climate (Alberta, Canada), so very little humidity. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, I was hoping I could reach out to everyone with real skills in hopes of gaining some insight on what I'm doing wrong.
Thank you in advance to everyone, I'm glad I finally made the decision to join a forum and get some great tips from the pros.
Cheers,
~C.